Telethon in Cut Off raises more than $90,000

Tuesday

CUT OFF — It’s 5:30 p.m. at the Cut Off Youth Center, and the annual Cerebral Palsy Telethon has just broken the $90,000 barrier, amid much cheering.

Now, it’s time to go for six figures, a milestone the telethon always flirts with, but rarely reaches. There are 30 minutes remaining of the two-day event as Sunday’s clock keeps ticking.

“Let’s keep those phones ringing,” co-host Curt Boudreaux says as he walks the phone banks, handing the microphone to various local dignitaries so they can read along the names of those who have pledged money.

Phone-banker Terry Danos is excited. He has a list of pledges to read.

“I was starting to feel like the Maytag repairman up here,” Danos says, as Lafourche Parish Councilman Rodney Doucet, seated next to him, dissolves in laughter.

Danos reads his pledges, and then Doucet reads his.

Meanwhile, at the “Goldfish Bowl,” which is actually an aquarium, co-host Harold Adams is standing with a group of women who have been manning the snack bar at the youth center.

Cut to Harold.

“Let’s keep those phones ringing,” he says, as the snack-bar ladies dump their jar of money, $207, into the bowl. One year, the goldfish bowl shattered because it was overstuffed with cash.

The telethon, a local institution for more than 30 years in south Lafourche, has its origins in Houma. It was taken over by Callais Cablevision, and now is run by Vision Communications.

“The first show was in Houma,” said John Dustin, executive director of Cerebral Palsy of Louisiana. “This was a satellite of it, the old channel 11, for the first two years. And then when channel 11 went under, Mr. Harold Callais let us use the cable station. So that’s where we started this show.”

The telethon is one of five such shows the Marrero-based Cerebral Palsy of Louisiana puts on each year to aid victims of cerebral palsy and their families with the often staggering expenses associated with the condition.

But the south Lafourche version holds a special place in Dustin’s heart.

“This is the best one,” he said. “That’s why I love the end of the year here. They do a tremendous job and raise a tremendous amount of money. This is a family-oriented community. And if they say they’re going to give it to you, you’re going to get it.

“In some of the metro areas we work in, if we get a contribution of, let’s pick a number, $100, we’re going to get $80. Here, if they say they’re going to give us $100, we’re going to get $99.50.”

It’s 5:50 p.m., and the big board reads $94,928.

“Let’s keep those phones ringing,” Boudreaux and Adams say.

Boudreaux and Adams have been hosting the event for nearly as long as its been in existence, starting at the cramped studios of Callais Cablevision in the early 1970s, then Callais’ bigger studios before moving the La-Salette Center in Golden Meadow and finally to its current home at the Cut Off Youth Center.

“I think we missed the first year, but that was it,” Boudreaux said.

“It’s a great cause,” Adams said. “It’s great people. It’s well-organized. The people in this area are so generous. It’s not work. It’s a labor of love.”

Just off camera, a small lime green walker with a tiny pink purse hanging from it awaits its owner, 5-year-old Emily Marie Auzston, this year’s poster child. Emily lays her head on her father’s shoulder, exhausted from her big weekend, but she still wears a smile.

“Financially, it’s very strapping to have a child with cerebral palsy,” said Maxine Auzston, Emily’s mother. “Therapy is very expensive. Physical therapy can be $150 an hour. This is such a great cause.”

Emily and her parents pose for pictures next to the big board, which displays its final total of $95,511. The six-figure goal hasn’t been met, but no one seems to mind all that much. People shake hands, hug and smile, knowing the work they’ve been doing has been, as everyone agrees, for a great cause.

“It’s exciting that the telethon is here for us,” Auzston said.

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